Iron Knot Press is a nonprofit publisher of books, training and curriculum materials that support the development of good heart through contemplation and meditation. Inspired by the 2500-year-old training of the bodhisattva — one who fully develops a heart of wisdom and great compassion — our aspiration is to make this vast and potent tradition accessible to the contemporary reader.

Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku is a guide — a manual of simple, accessible, and quietly revolutionary steps that any of us can take to bring positive transformation into our lives and those of others. On whatever level the teachings presented in this book are applied — from the intimate sphere of personal experience to the complex dynamics of family, community, national, and even international relations — they will lead infallibly toward fulfillment and peace.

The teachings in Change of Heart are drawn from a series of Bodhisattva Peace Trainings conducted by His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. Through his teachings we can begin to experience the embrace of wisdom and sanity that comes from giving rise to awakened mind, the very heart of the bodhisattva.

Compiled, edited and revised by Lama Shenpen Drolma, this edition includes profoundly elaborated and expanded meditation instructions, which help us to blend Rinpoche's teachings with our mind and heart, until their essence arises spontaneously as lived experience. A new preface articulates the intent of these proven methods for discovering the treasure of our inherent positive qualities, which in turn enhance our capacity to help others do the same.

Paperback Available here.

Kindle Available here.

Audio book coming soon.

We are pleased to announce the Change of Heart audiobook, narrated by Lama Shenpen Drolma, is coming soon! It will be available through Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Stay tuned!

The spiritual principles and methods found in this book are at the heart of the path of the bodhisattva. The bodhisattva is one who’s committed to ending suffering and bringing about happiness for all beings throughout time and space.

This may sound like an impossible goal that has nothing to do with our daily lives. But the way of the bodhisattva can be practiced by anyone, anywhere, at any time. To the extent that we practice it, we can be certain we’ll be of true and lasting benefit to ourselves and others. We’ll learn how to do that in this book.

Everything the bodhisattva does comes from a heart of wisdom and compassion. To be able to do this, the bodhisattva trains their mind in bodhicitta—the wisdom mind of great compassion—for the purpose of increasing their positive qualities and decreasing whatever stands in the way of their being of the greatest benefit. 

This book is concerned with how we give rise to bodhicitta—how we practice, stabilize and deepen it. This training is made accessible through extensive, step-by-step teachings, questions and answers from group retreats and over 50 meditation instructions that walk the contemporary reader through the 2500-year-old training of the bodhisattva.

If you feel these teachings might be of benefit to others, please share news of its availability through your social media networks and by adding a review to the Amazon page. Both the ebook and paperback versions are available on Amazon.

For additional resources related to Sunlight on Shadows click here.

Lama Shenpen Drolma, an American woman, was ordained in 1996 as a lama (or Buddhist teacher) by her teacher, Tibetan meditation master H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche (1930-2002.) She worked with him as he developed the Bodhisattva Peace Training (BPT), an innovative format to bring to a secular audience the Mahayana Buddhist training of the bodhisattva— the awakened warrior. Since becoming authorized by him in 1991 to teach the BPT, and drawing on her feminist and battered women’s activism in the 1960s and ‘70s, she has offered this training extensively, working with students, educators, community activists and those in the helping professions.

Lama Shenpen compiled and edited Chagdud Rinpoche’s BPT teachings into Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku (2003), which incorporates many dialogues that took place between Chagdud Rinpoche and participants from a variety of religious, political, and occupational backgrounds.

In 1999, Lama Shenpen established Iron Knot Ranch, a retreat center in southern New Mexico, where she currently serves as resident lama and has developed the Bodhisattva Peace Institute to bring to fruition Chagdud Rinpoche’s vision of making the BPT widely available throughout the world. In 2019, she established Iron Knot Institute to address a growing need among educational and non-profit organizations for training and practice materials for the cultivation of wisdom and compassion in the face of adversity. Iron Knot Institute is also home to Iron Knot Press, established to publish teaching and training curriculums to support the work of Iron Knot Institute.

In 2021, Iron Knot Press published Lama Shenpen’s Sunlight on Shadows: Embracing Great Compassion. This book is based on a number of Bodhisattva Peace Trainings and Change of Heart Immersion Retreats taught by Lama Shenpen over the years. An inspiring practice support for those already on the path of the bodhisattva, it also serves as an accessible entrance for those newly exploring a spiritual approach to personal and social transformation.